His right hand

Chapter 1

*should I go through there* I questioned while pointing my finger to the left *or over there?* pointing now to the right, this time holding my phone pretty confused.

I was on my way to meet Carla at the bar, but somehow I’ve got lost, *really dumb if you ask me* I’m still not used to Rome areas, everything just looks the same sometimes. I glanced at my phone -one bar of signal- *crazy*. The map keeps spinning uselessly in place like it didn’t know where it was either. *I guess we are both lost in here* I sigh.

The street I took was quieter than I liked. No loud music, no other people footsteps but mine. Just the hum of a street light overhead throwing more shadow than light.

*I guess I just need to keep walking* I thought. All roads lead to Rome. Or well that’s what they say.

I kept walking 3 more min when I notice something that could probably be a shortcut - maybe. I followed my instincts and walk through it expecting somehow to get closer to the noise, crowds or at least another sound that is not mine.

While I kept walking I turned down a narrower street that opened onto a row of warehouses- concrete and rust.

*Yeah, maybe not* I turned to backtrack the way I’d come and the air change from one second to another. A man in a hat, far but not far enough for my taste, walking. He is not walking fast, it’s like if he has all the time in the world, but the problem is, he is walking towards me.

*Oh f**k*

I turn back around and started walking again. I didn’t run, *I’m not that stupid to look that obvious* at least not yet. I’ll attack if it’s necessary but I need more time before I react. *what a pain*. I walked faster, cutting left at the next gap between buildings, and behind me his footsteps. He sped to match mine exactly. No running, matching. *I’m over*

My pulse was doing something loud and stupid in my ears. *I need to relax* I tried to breathe the way I’d read about somewhere - *How was it? In for four, out for four? Ugh, this is ridiculous*- and it didn’t work even a little. The warehouses blurred past, door after door, chained or locked.

Then- one wasn’t.

A silver black between a door and its frame, barely the width of a hand. *There*, I didn’t let myself think about it twice.

“It’s now or never” I whispered to my own.

I ran the last ten feet, slipped through the gap sideways and shot the door behind me, throwing the lock in a speed that could be time record. I pressed my ear to the metal and listened carefully outside.

The footsteps slowed down until they stopped completely right outside, right where I was standing. A long awful silence until finally the footsteps moved on.

I let out a deep sigh, *it’s been a while* I thought. The relief lasted exactly as long as I turned around and realized the warehouse wasn’t empty.

The dark swallowed everything past a few feet. I could make shapes like crates stacked in uneven towers and something that might be a machinery.

“Still no signal” I muttered while looking at my phone. “Is he still out there?” I wondered.

“I wasn’t expecting a guest today”

I looked up. A voice came from everything and nowhere, low and unhurried. I tried to look for the owner of the voice but half of the warehouse wasn’t peach black.

“Oh- no worries at all! I was just leaving, I promise” my voice came out thin but friendly. Kinda weird tho, he is in this place in the darkness at 11:30 pm.

“Who are you?” Still just the voice, no shape of it.

“Me?” Pointed at my chest, absurdly. “Just someone who’s about to go back the way she came” I turned for the door but the voice stopped me cold.

“Stop right there”

*I’m dead*

I turned back. He stepped out of the shadow and into what little light there was, planted himself in the middle of the floor, hands in his pockets entirely at ease - the specific ease of a man standing in a room he owns.

He was tall. Broad through the shoulders in a way the suit didn’t hide so much as sharpen. His eyes were so dark, I couldn’t find the line between his iris and pupil, and they were over me like they were already cataloging every lie I hadn’t told yet. Black hair comped with precision almost perfect. The suit alone probably cost more than what I make in a year.

*Oh, I’m so dead*

“That’s not what I asked. Your name”

Not a request. An order, delivered so quietly that somehow landed louder than shouting would have.

“I’m Liv”

He closed the distance between us in a few unhurried steps that seemed to eat up more space than they should have. *Personal space buddy* I thought.

“And what are you doing in my property liv?” His eyes stayed locked on mine the whole time, searching, looking to catch a lie in case I say one.

“I- I was being followed. Your door was open- so I came in.”

Something shifted behind his eyes at *followed*. Sharper and colder.

“You were being followed” he drew a cigarette from his jacket and lit it up without ever looking away from me. “Did you steal some candy or something?”

*Do I look like I steal candy?*

“Yeah haha, I’m not that young but thank you for that” a short laugh slipped out of me, let’s say more nerves than humor, stupidity probably. “I was in my way to meet someone at the bar.”

“Ah” one eyebrow lifted lightly. “So, you are one of “those”?.”

*Is that an insult or compliment? Genuinely I can not tell.*

“Do you always think the worst of everyone?”

“Mostly. Yeah.” He exhaled smoke, unbothered, like the truth of it didn’t need defending.

“Got it. Well- time flies, time for me to go. Thank you” I started to walk back to the exit door.

“Don’t move.”

*Again? Seriously?!*

“I know, I’m in your property” I said sharper than I meant to. “You have made that clear.”

“Now I’m part of your problem.” My face must shown the confusion I felt, because he elaborated patient, the way people get when they think you are slow. “If someone was following you and he’s still out there, and something happens to you- that’s on me.” *Okay fine, that makes sense somehow.* “And he is not looking for you probably” he paused for a second. “If they are looking for somebody, that will be for me. You just walked into the middle of it by accident.”

*Math is not mathing. What is happening right now?*

“Who’s they—?

He didn’t answer right away. Instead he studied me a little longer, head titled sightly. The cigarette burning down between his fingers, unhurried in a way that made the silence stretch tight as wire.

My body was feeling danger even tho nothing was happening, but something— wasn’t feeling right.

“You are shaking” he said. Not a question. An observation.

“I just got chased through an industrial district by some random creepy” I said sarcastically. He gave me a sharply look. “Sorry”

The corner of his mouth twisted— not quite a smile tho. I don’t even know what kind of face he is making.

“You have a mouth on you.”

“I’ve been told”

“By people who liked it—“ he made a paused for a moment. “Or people who didn’t?”

“Depends on the day”

He came a step closer, closer enough now that I had to lift my head sightly to keep looking at him. *Pretty big guy not gonna lie* and the smell of him— cigarette smoke, something clean and expensive cologne, filled the small distance between us.

“You should be more careful” he said, quieter now. “ Not every open door is an accident.”

“I wonder what this one is.”

The warehouse around us felt very large and very much like the kind of silence that comes right before something breaks.

Then— something did.

A crash, distant at the far end of the building. Metal on concrete, close enough that we both turned towards the sound at once. His face change completely. The almost smile was gone and it was replaced by something flat and alert.

“Come here” he didn’t wait for me to agree. His hand closed around my wrist and pulled me toward a door at the back of the warehouse, *His office maybe* but we didn’t make it. The exit door from earlier exploded inward and a man stepped through with a gun already raised.

*Oh f**k—*